Rompers was an arcade game by Namco in 1989. It is included as one of the games in Namco Museum Encore on the Playstation. Even though I would not go so far as to say that Rompers is the only game I want on that software, it is true that I would have bought the software as long as it has Rompers, and I would not have bought it if Rompers were not there.
Rompers is a dynamic puzzle game, my favorite genre. It is also one of the better ones in the genre. Since it is the first dynamic puzzle game review I'm writing in here, let me talk a bit about the genre in general.
What I consider to be brilliant dynamic puzzle games, usually employ indirect attacks rather than direct attacks. By indirect attack I mean a way of attacking the enemies that is not: universally useable anywhere at high frequency with power. The reason is that once a dynamic puzzle game has direct attacks, game positions become less important: if enemies approach, you just blast away. Only in a game where the player does not have too powerful attacks would maneuvers be important. The dynamic puzzle games that I most loved: Mr. Do!, Quinty, Mappy, and Rompers, all employ indirect attacks.
In Rompers, the player controls Chap, a little boy who moves around a maze with many stone slabs. He can topple (by pushing) the stone slabs ("pang!"), crushing any enemies on where they lands. A fallen stone slab re-generates automatically after some time. A stage is cleared by collecting all the keys in it.
Rompers is a brilliant example of a game with indirect attacks. By toppling stone slabs, you can crush enemies and make a path. To crush an enemy, the stone slab must be between you and the enemy: this is not "an action game masquerading as a puzzle game" where you simply run up to any enemy and press the attack button to dispose of it. One important strategy that the player learns early on is, when surrounded by enemies coming from both sides, to topple a stone slab to make a path for the player to run away. (In these respects, Rompers may have minimal resemblance to Pengo, but Rompers has many innovative features far beyond Pengo.)
Rompers is a brilliant and innovative dynamic puzzle game. It is very simple to learn, but there is much depth in the strategies and tactics. The controls are simple and intuitive. The game is also very fast-paced: for example, some stages are thrilling battles with enemies who can topple the very same stone slabs on you. The enemy types, though limited in number, are very colorful (in terms of their effects on game play): one of the best examples of quality before quantity. There are 61 stages, with good variety in them. The graphics are very, very cute, and the BGM, though it sounds dated, fits with the game atmosphere very well.
Rompers is not without its weaknesses (besides, obviously, that graphics and sounds are not on today's level). The game has only slightly more randomness than Pac-man, which means that it is possible to memorize a "formula" (a description of exactly where to go and when) for most stages, and then clearing the stage would be reduced to merely executing that. This weakens the re-playability, and hence longevity, of the game. In addition, the screen only shows a rather small area of the playing field, and often the player can be killed by a very fast enemy (those rolling things) or an enemy with long range attack capability (the red dragons) before he can react. That seems to add more weight to precognition (memorizing stages) rather than quick judgements during play. Also, most of the "score items" (especially in the early stages) are worth so few points that there is little meaning in spending the time (which is worth a lot of points) to retrieve them. (Solomon's Key has more valuable items.)
Despite the flaws, for lovers of dynamic puzzles, Rompers is undoubtedly a gem. The difficulty of the game is rather high. (It's an arcade game, not a lukewarm cheesy home console game!) Though I say that the game is simple to learn, the strategies and concepts may be difficult to grasp for players not used to innovative games. And, I'm sure that there will be players, who prefer bloody gore to ultra-cuteness, who absolutely hate the style and atmosphere of this game.
A remark has to be made about a feature. Stage selection can be activitated in the test screen, even though it is not listed on the options menu. (I would have missed this feature if I had not remembered that I had played on a machine with stage select in the arcade.)
Copyright 8 November 1997 Alan Shiu Ho Kwan
Alan Kwan / tarot@netvigator.com / created 8 Nov 97